Receiving Electronic Invoices by Email in SAP Arib...

maria_parvanova · ‎2024 Dec 24

In this blog, we will explore how SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management can process electronic invoices received by email.

As of January 2025, a new legal mandate in Germany requires businesses to be able to receive invoices electronically from their suppliers. For more information about the law in general, check out this blog New B2B electronic invoicing law in Germany: What you need to know.

Multiple solutions available

While this blog focuses on handling electronic invoices received by email, it's important to note that there are other solutions available. SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management also supports electronic invoices received through the Peppol network. There are additional SAP offerings for handling electronic invoices received from your supplier. To get a complete list, check out the Supported Business Scenarios for Germany.

For more information on some of these alternatives, refer to the following blogs:

Overview of the Process

As a company in Germany, you have two options to manage electronic invoices received by email with SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management.

Option 1: Automatic extraction from the email and upload of the XML using SAP Build Process Automation.

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File Extraction from Email and Upload:
You use the Supplier Invoice File Extraction from Email and Upload to SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management task automation to automate the extraction and upload of supplier invoices, which you receive as an email attachment, to your SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management. See Supplier Invoice File Extraction from Email and Upload to SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management (6JX).
As a result, the system automatically creates a draft invoice for each uploaded file, attaching the file to the draft invoice.
Validation and Mapping
The business system forwards the electronic invoice to SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition. The system validates the invoice and maps it to the standard format used in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management. As a result, if the invoice is complete and valid, its status changes to "Parked and Completed."
Verifying and Submitting Posting File
If manual adjustments are needed, such as correcting missing or incorrect fields, you can edit the invoice using the Manage Supplier Invoices Centrally app. Then you submit the posting file to the connected business system. This will trigger an approval workflow.
Further Processing
An invoice for the received electronic document is created in your connected business system, and you can further process it.

Option 2: Manual extraction from the email and manual upload of the XML file in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management.

Screenshot 2025-01-13 at 16.31.24.png

Extracting the XML File
You received an email with an attached electronic invoice file, and you extract the XML file to your local system.
Uploading the File
You upload the XML file to SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management using the Upload Supplier Invoices Centrally app. For more information, see Upload Supplier Invoices Centrally. As a result, the system automatically creates a draft invoice for each uploaded file, attaching the file to the draft invoice.
Validation and Mapping
The system forwards the electronic invoice to SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition. The cloud edition functionalities validate the invoice and map it to the standard format used in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management. As a result, if the invoice is complete and valid, its status changes to "Parked and Completed."
Verifying and Submitting Posting File
If manual adjustments are needed, such as correcting missing or incorrect fields, you can edit the invoice using the Manage Supplier Invoices Centrally app. Then you submit the posting file to the connected business system. This will trigger an approval workflow.
Further Processing
An invoice for the received electronic document is created in your connected business system, and you can further process it.

How to get started?

To be able to use the scenarios you need to do the following configurations in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management:

Set up the connection from SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management to SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition. Configuration steps described on SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management. See Setting Up Connectivity.
Activate data extraction of the XML file with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition in the Manage Processing Services app. See Activate Data Extraction of XML Electronic Invoice with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, Cloud....

To complete the integration, you must do some configurations in SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition:

Set up the connection from SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition to SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management. See Setting Up Connectivity.
Specify client credentials required to enable your business system to communicate with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition, using OAuth 2.0 client authentication. See Creating Service Bindings Using OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication for Invoices Received by E-Mail (Ger...

Note: If you have already integrated SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition to receive invoices through the Peppol network, you only need to create the additional service binding and use the other setting as they are already configured.

For information about accepting and processing electronic invoices received through the Peppol network, please refer to Receiving Electronic Invoices Through the Peppol Network in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management.

By leveraging SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management, businesses in Germany can seamlessly transition to accepting electronic invoices, ensuring compliance with the new legal requirements while optimizing their invoicing processes.

Receiving Electronic Invoices by Email in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management